Born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Ed Block earned his Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Stanford University. He is now Emeritus Professor of English at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, where, until his retirement in 2012, he taught a variety of literature courses, concluding his career with capstone courses on Denise Levertov and Czeslaw Milosz and workshops in creative writing. His poems have appeared in Plainsongs, Nebraska Life, Lake Country Journal, Bramble, CrossCurrents, and a variety of other venues. Besides publishing or editing books and numerous literary articles, he is the author of four poetry collections: Anno Domini (2016), Seasons of Change (2017) Shell Dreams (2022), and Banners of Longing (2023).